The effects of candy, coffee, and Christmas trees (Erin)

In my nominally Catholic/Lutheran childhood household, Santa brought the tree after we went to bed Christmas Eve, so I can assure you that it can be done and is a viable alternative. According to my mother, it took fooling with the clock and explaining to us that we had to be in bed early, didn't have to be asleep, could read and talk, to give Santa a chance (I can remember that part).

Not to disparage the fun of putting the tree up now, I can tell you that our experience was MAGIC. When we went to bed, all that was in our house was the Christmas art we had made in school, the Advent calendar, and a Nativity set minus baby Jesus, and when we looked over the banister in the morning, there were decorations in the front hall so we knew Santa had come, but the doors to the living room were closed. Behind them was Christmas Heaven!

We had a live tree, and it was hidden in a neighbor's garage or even in part of our basement they kept us out of for the day or two it took. The presents were in the attic, where we couldn't go, couldn't read the ladder, and it didn't occur to us to try and look.

What fond memories!

Thank you, Erin, for blogging in Rod's absence. I always find your postings interesting and thought-provoking, even though, I frequently disagree with them. LOL, a friend and I had a discussion this afternoon about what kind of dog the Obamas should get; We think a Golden Doodle (my friend has one)!

Point taken, Your Name. However, it's one thing for a priest to insist on Catholic teaching regarding marriage and family life, and another for a priest to set arbitrary rules where the Church doesn't have any.

I was reading the other day about how the Catholic and Orthodox observance of Advent diverged, with the Orthodox retaining the more rigorous fast for the longer time period, and the Catholic Advent being set at four weeks and being viewed as a time of abstinence but not of strict fast. With the lessening of the penitential character of the season, the Church doesn't spell out specific rules about what is and isn't appropriate to do during the time of Advent preparation, provided the solemn spirit of the season is observed, and thus people may make reasonable choices about how to go about preparing for Christmas.

I'm from a big family myself, and my mother would probably have laughed if anyone had suggested, when we were young, that she stay up putting up the tree and decorating it on Christmas Eve. Those "religious throwbacks" also know that the baby, toddler, and next oldest child are likely to put a damper into any plans that presume you're going to have several uninterrupted hours in which to work on preparing your Christmas surprise for the children.

Another point is that houses aren't necessarily what they were. We have a small house with an open floor plan, which means you can see the family room and kitchen from the living room. Pretty hard to hide a tree, even for an afternoon, in space like that; Therese mentions in her post the "doors to the living room" being closed, but I can't remember the last time I lived in...oh, wait, the house my parents lived in when I was eighteen had doors to the living room; it was built in the 1880s.

As for following tradition--I'm not sure there's any official liturgical tradition, essential to the Christmas feast, which dictates the day and hour when one's tree may be put up, so I'm not really sure what you mean by that.

>>> "and that in the second place only someone who lived in a house without children could think for a moment this was even..."

Fantastic quote, even in part.

Now, keep that same thought in mind when agreeing with this man (or those like him) when he voices his opinions on things such topics as in vetro fertilization, safe-sex, child rearing, homosexuality, and virtually every other topic that he has zero personal experience with yet would claim authority to pass judgment on.

Welcome to my world.

"Therese mentions in her post the "doors to the living room" being closed, but I can't remember the last time I lived in...oh, wait, the house my parents lived in when I was eighteen had doors to the living room; it was built in the 1880s."

I had forgotten for a moment that people didn't live in houses like ours that was built in 1895 (not fancy, just old).

My reminiscence wasn't meant to prick people into defending their choices, it was just to say that with deliberate choices and limitations, it could and still can be done.

But it also reflects a time when people didn't decorate at a level they often do today. I am getting slowly horrified at the cable TV shows about decorating for the holidays and "turning your bathroom into a winter wonderland." Cripes!

I'd like to see some discussion about how much decorating is too much for a Christian. There's got to be a point where creating fun for the children and a gracious setting for entertaining becomes a display of consumerism and setting up idols, practically.

Can you know, love and serve the Lord and take down and replace your kitchen curtains with Christmas ones, or hang ornaments from every light fixture, or swap all the sofa pillows, or bed linens, or change ALL your dishes over? I think maybe not?

Thanks for your great work on the blog, Erin. Have a Merry Christmas.

In our household (three young children), we maintain a very strong wall of separation between Advent and Christmas. We usually don't even go out to buy a tree until the 23rd or 24th (which has the added advantage of getting "clearence" trees for five bucks or less), and we never put it up until the 24th. It's usually mid-afternoon when we decorate it, and then we have dinner and go to "midnight" (usually 9pm) Mass.

Even with three young homeschooled children, we have no problem getting the tree up and decorated on the afternoon of the 24th. When I was a child, we always put the tree up much earlier. But I really like this new tradition, as it helps us more fully appreciate both Advent and Christmas.